PHOTOGRAGHY,
OPTICS AND COMPUTING TIPS
FOR
TOTAL BEGINNERS AND IGNORAMUSES
The
main emphasis will be to offer advice and tips on
digital photography, enhancing, meanings of technical
specifications, which cameras, tripods and optics
to purchase, for the beginner. Any additional tips
or opinions will be welcomed. More to follow.
Scanners
for Naturalists
The
Rule of Thirds
Digital
Photography
Digiscoping:
This is the name of the method whereby a picture can
be taken by a digital camera, through a high- powered
spotting telescope. It began in about 2000 due to
innovative Nikon 4500 cameras, became popular, but
the interest has tapered off. This is because no camera
has ever been manufactured specifically for digiscoping
that has proved an all-round success. However, the
results with a working combination of camera, telescope
and adaptor, can be fantastic and always challenging.
Photographing
Plants: Flora is an excellent subject
for digital photgraghy. You can now photograph all
these plants (never pick wild flowers, leave for everyone
to enjoy and allow plants to scatter their seeds)
and check on the pictures from the comfort of your
armchair. You can get closer to plants than birds,
and they don’t move around so much. Yes, this
is facetious, but plants do move in the breeze. Hold
the stem. Another tip is to place a coin or a finger
near the plant, to give indication of size.
Here,
the picture of a giant fungus, means little until
the size is revealed.
Digital
Zoom: This means little. It simply disposes
of pixels, so you might as well crop or blow the image
up on your computer. Optical zoom on the other hand,
is genuine.
Delete:
If you have seen a rare or beautiful bird, or a common
bird displaying unusual behaviour, there can be intense
excitement as you download onto your computer. The
upshot can be either intense satisfaction or bitter
disappointment. You can never too sure of the quality
of pictures until you see them on a big screen. Most
should be deleted. Your friends are not interested
in a slightly out of focus Sparrow. If the bird was
moving and is blurred, or was too much over or under-exposed,
then delete. Unless the subject is rare, means something
special to you, or is captured in an unusual pose,
delete, delete, delete.
Exposure
or Lightness: We are however, able to
manipulate and improve our results. Usually easier
and best to let the camera do this automatically,
but if in doubt, always slightly under-expose rather
than over-expose, but do not over-do this. A photo
manipulation programme can easily brighten up a picture,
with little loss of definition, but if the picture
is over exposed, definition may have been irretrievably
lost.
Wildlife
Enhancement: There are only 3 tools that
are needed to improve wildlife pictures, which make
pictures come to life. Adjust the lighting, sharpen
and crop, and all can be done in seconds.
Sharpen:
One of the best tools for improving wildlife pictures.
For a peculiar reason, it is sometimes called the
‘Unsharp Tool’. You can adjust how much
a picture can be sharpened before it becomes unnatural
and ‘noise’ appears, and you can see this
by clicking a ‘Preview’control. The more
pixels, the more it can be sharpened.
Pixels:
Stands for PIcture Elements or the number
of dots that form a picture. Do not be too obsessed
with pixels; the human eye is quite satisfied with
a 3 megapixel image, or even less. The major advantage
of a high resolution image is when we wish to produce
a large print, to crop an image, or sharpen it.
Crop:
One of the most used tools, not just for wildlife,
but every type of picture. Cut out superfluous details,
just highlight the subject. It also reflects more
of what our eyes actually see, as we do not take in
all the details of a scene.
Saturation:
This saturates the colours and is the most
dangerous tool. Here a dead, flat image can come to
life, by accentuating the colours. It is tempting
to overdo this, so best to avoid using it. Within
seconds, that House Sparrow acquires the wow factor
of a Kingfisher, but it is not true. Indeed, the results
can be so appalling they could win the Turner Prize.
Manipulation:
Beware of manipulation. It is okay for certain categories,
but not nature, there is no requirement. Here are
my two self-portraits, slightly enhanced - -
A
bird in the hand is worth two in the bush: No
it aint.
This
is how it should read, and the saying that I submitted
to the ‘Oxford Dictionary of Thematic Quotations’.
- ‘A bird in the hand is not worth anything
like two in the bush. We all have seen photographs
of birds being held in the hand, after netting and
about to be ringed. These ringers are doing an excellent
job in monitoring the birds, but we quickly pass these
photographs. Where is the majesty? If a small dot
is seen on the horizon riding the waves, and we recognise
it as a Shearwater, there is feeling of awe. (A Manx
Shearwater has been recorded as being 50 years of
age and has flown over 5 million miles) When a little
bundle of feathers has flown from South Africa, across
the Sahara, like the Swallow, then there is mystery,
there is splendour. When we look and finally see a
warbler in a bush, there is challenge. But, a bird
in the hand? Forget it!’
Anyway,
the Oxford Dictionary editors rejected the modified
saying, claiming it was ‘not snappy enough’.
Suit yourselves.
Back-up
: It would seem the best back-up remains
the CD disc. DVDs do not always work reliably. After
being harangued, I did what a man has to do and bought
an external hard drive; simple to use and 80GB.
I
plugged it in, there was an immediate power surge
and all the ports packed up, and that is how my computer
remains. I nearly lost everything, the computer crashed.
Relating this story to my website technician Stephanie,
she said exactly the same thing happened to her computer.
The moral of this story is errrrrrrrrr ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Depth
of Field: This is the area that will
be in focus in the picture. Sometimes you may wish
the subject to stand out, so everything else should
be out of focus, other times you may wish to show
as much as is possible in a scene.
Security:
The gloss was slightly tarnished following a glorious
day, digiscoping a Wryneck with Jason Crook, at Farlington
Marshes in 2005. Upon returning to my car, I discovered
a brick on my Back seat, which for the life of me,
I could not recall taking. I then discovered shattered
glass, and my SLR camera, which had been hidden under
a blanket, was coincidentally missing. Warning 1)
Although I thought I was insured, it transpired that
goods had to be in the boot or the glove compartment.
A
few weeks later, we arrived at our hotel in Quito.
During 30 hours, I had never lost sight of my hand-
luggage, which contained all of my money and valuables.
I put my bag down for 2 minutes and twas never seen
or heard of again. Warning 2) No one knows who-is-who
at a hotel check-in.
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